Mobile communication devices are in use throughout everyday life. One common aspect of the design and development of mobile communication devices is that there is an ongoing movement to reduce the size of devices and to provide increased functionality and ease of use even though the size is being reduced.
Conventional attempts to provide additional functionality in a smaller package have resulted in mobile communication devices that are described as a “flip phone” in which a hinge is provided and the mobile communication device opens in a clam shell fashion to reveal additional functions on both parts of the flipped device. Another conventional method to add functionality has been the use of a slide function in which the face or a portion of the mobile communication device is slid along a base of the mobile communication device to reveal, for example, a keyboard or the like. More recently, some conventional devices have the capability of sliding the face or first portion in either of two directions to provide additional access to certain functionality. For example, sliding the cover in one direction may reveal a keyboard while in another direction may reveal telephone keys.
These existing solutions present certain problems with regard to the user accessing functions. For example, with the flip phone concept, the user must entirely open the phone to access the functions. Further, with the slide phone concept, the user must open the phone fully to access the functionality and in the situation of two directional sliding, the user may not be able to access both levels of functionality at the same time.
Existing slide mechanisms typically make use of mechanical stops, springs or the like, which act to hold the slide at particular positions. These slide mechanisms require forces to be applied when sliding the slide mechanism and can result in a “clunky” feel to the sliding motion.
As such there is a need for an improved system and method for a slide mechanism for mobile devices.